Creative Livinghttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com
Pursuing creative whimsSun, 18 Mar 2018 10:32:38 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/85009feb84f8df2511b3104d27e1fc31?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngCreative Livinghttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com
Introducing the latest Technick Designer: Joshua Sanchez of Visual Vantagehttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/introducing-technick-designs-latest-artist-joshua-sanchez-of-visual-vantage/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/introducing-technick-designs-latest-artist-joshua-sanchez-of-visual-vantage/#respondSun, 05 Jan 2014 23:06:48 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=168Continue reading →]]>It’s my pleasure to introduce Joshua Sanchez as the newest addition to the artist team at Technick Designs. He has a really impressive design portfolio on Cargo Collective consisting of logo designs, branding initiatives, and beautiful real estate photography. He is based out of South Florida and will work with Technic Designs remotely. In his portfolio, you’ll see exquisite and meticulously edited photographs of multi-million dollar homes in the South Florida area as well as elegant logo and branding initiatives. Josh has true artistic talent, and Technic Designs is very grateful for all his help, consultation, and designs.

In addition to developing the web graphics for Technic Designs, Josh will be submitting original designs for t-shirts and art products. Stay tuned to see some of Josh’s great designs at the Technic Designs store!

Not looking for a T-Shirt or art product? Visual Vantage is available for your custom logo designs and photography needs. Contact Visual Vantage from their website for a quote! The portfolio speaks for itself!

]]>https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/introducing-technick-designs-latest-artist-joshua-sanchez-of-visual-vantage/feed/0nicholasdavisScreen Shot 2014-01-05 at 5.56.31 PMScreen Shot 2014-01-05 at 6.02.20 PMCreative Income Streams – Peer to Peer Lending with LendingClubhttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/creative-income-streams-peer-to-peer-lending-with-lendingclub/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/creative-income-streams-peer-to-peer-lending-with-lendingclub/#respondSun, 05 Jan 2014 18:44:16 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=136Continue reading →]]>Peer to Peer (P2P) lending has recently emerged as a viable option for an alternative income. New books are emerging that chronicle how P2P lending is radically disrupting how loans are transacted, such das The Lending Club Story: How the world’s largest peer to peer lender is transforming finance and how you can benefit. I have been investing with LendingClub for about 10 months and my experience has been positive.

P2P lending is a way to distribute and democratize the loan funding process. Instead of big banks controlling all the money that changes hands in a society, individuals can now engage in the practice of lending money out to their peers privately. To invest at LendingClub, the user purchases a $25 note that represents part of a much larger loan, up to $36,00. The investor should only purchase one note per loan to avoid default risk.

Just like any other lending agency, LendingClub evaluates their applicants and assigns them a certain risk profile. Based on this evaluation, the loan associated with that applicant is assigned an interest rate ranging from Grade A loans with an interest rate of 4-6% and Grade G loans with an interest rate of 24-26%.

Initially, one would assume that investing with the higher grade loans is a better option because it reduces default, but that’s not totally true. There are other factors that can change the average default rate– the search parameters used to find loans. Users can craft custom filters to find low grade loans. This raises the average return while maintaining the same risk profile or in some cases better than selected purely on the basis of loan grade.

Sites like NickelsteamRoller provide simulation platforms that allow users to backtest strategies. If you try that site, be careful to only base inferences on simulations that consider at least 1000 loans. When the sample size is too small, statistical variations are meaningless.

I’ve tried two different strategies since I started. The first strategy was from the Brave New Life Blog and the second strategy was based on my own research at NickelsteamRoller. So far I’m averaging a 15% return and I have had one default. That default cost me probably about a 7% reduction in my return. My account is currently generating $35 per month, which means it is now self sustaining because it earns enough to purchase one note a month.

Do you have creative alternative income streams? Or do you want to know more about P2P investing? Comment below and I’ll respond!

]]>https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/creative-income-streams-peer-to-peer-lending-with-lendingclub/feed/0nicholasdavisImageImageImageCreative Income Streams – Online T-Shirt Storehttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/creative-income-streams-online-t-shirt-store/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/creative-income-streams-online-t-shirt-store/#respondSun, 05 Jan 2014 11:15:15 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=118Continue reading →]]>As an artist, I have a lot of drawings and sketches laying around not going to much use. I’ve decided to put a few of those designs on clothing, canvas prints, posters, and other products, such as coffee mugs, key rings, and postcards. The art products are branded under the name Technick Designs, products for a creative lifestyle.

I have a few other ventures happening right now, such as my creative startup company, so I wanted to ask a few friends for help. We are going to compile our designs and divvy up the profits.

The t-shirt shop has some initial startup costs in terms of setting up the store and template structures, but there is a good tutorial about creating templates in Zazzle. Templates allow Zazzle users to you make hundreds of products with one image upload.

Have you ever tried to make a creative online venture? What was your experience like? If you have any tips or comments, let me know below!

]]>https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/creative-income-streams-online-t-shirt-store/feed/0TechnickDesigns_TechDnicholasdavisScreen Shot 2014-01-05 at 7.51.17 AMTechnickDesigns_header-02Calming Your Creative Space with a Meditation Art Sculpturehttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/calming-your-creative-space-with-a-meditation-art-sculpture/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/calming-your-creative-space-with-a-meditation-art-sculpture/#commentsSun, 05 Jan 2014 00:33:35 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=97Continue reading →]]>I’ve been meditating for years now and along the way I have developed a skill for creating harmonious meditation sculptures. These sculptures carve out a relaxing space for meditation in a living room, bedroom, or study. Meditation sculptures are arrangements of buddha statues, crystal spheres, polished stone, candles, artwork, and other items. There are guides to Feng Shui, but the type of sculptural artwork described here is personal and subjective because it is meant to aid in meditation, relaxation, and calm reflection. Although each sculpture will be uniquely manifested by the creator, I’ll describe the method and thought processes I go through to create my meditation sculptures to help give you some ideas about your own!

Things You’ll Need:

Check out the video below for an introductory tutorial about making meditation sculptures.

What kind of meditation sculpture do you want to make? Share you thoughts or comments below.

]]>https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/calming-your-creative-space-with-a-meditation-art-sculpture/feed/2Photoboard_horizontal-nicholasdavisPhotoboard_horizontal_2000The Greatest Inventions are Simple – Revolutionary Tooth Flosshttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/the-greatest-inventions-are-simple-revolutionary-tooth-floss/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/the-greatest-inventions-are-simple-revolutionary-tooth-floss/#respondSat, 04 Jan 2014 06:13:27 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=74Continue reading →]]>Dental health is important. We all know that. Generally, people brush their teeth regularly, but they do not floss as often as they should. The main reason people don’t floss is because it is difficult and time consuming. A great flossing alternative has been around for years, but it has not caught on mainstream yet, which is interesting from an economic and business perspective. Great business ideas are supposed to be those that fill a consumer need at a compelling price point. This product does just that, yet it remains largely undiscovered.

As an advocate of creative living, I wanted to let anyone who is interested know about this simple yet revolutionary dental technology that makes flossing a breeze. You can buy the product at amazon or pick it up at your local walgreens/cvs/walmart etc.

The Reach Access Flosser is a very creative solution to the flossing problem. Wrapping regular dental floss around the fore fingers is a pain and it requires hands and fingers (which are dirty) to be put near or in the mouth. People tend to avoid it for this reason. But with the floss stick, flossing is a breeze! Honestly, it is much easier. It’s a lot faster and more versatile to control floss with a stick, allowing the floss to move around more of the tooth and gums. With this tool, flossing actually becomes mildly enjoyable, and it’s only a couple of dollars with very low cost refills that are not required often.

]]>https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/the-greatest-inventions-are-simple-revolutionary-tooth-floss/feed/041x0yQVY1SLnicholasdavisThe Reach Access Floss StickCreative Entrepreneurshiphttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/creative-entrepreneurship/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/creative-entrepreneurship/#respondTue, 19 Jul 2011 01:52:27 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=69Continue reading →]]>The idea of starting a business has been brewing for some time among my friends and I. It takes courage and conviction, but the payoff could be good in terms of monetary payoff and impact on a field.

I think the direction I would want to head in is some sort of creative consulting. But this would not be anything new. There are creative consultants in many fields, and they have to do with marketing, advertising, and positioning a product in a new and meaningful way. What I think I would like to pursue is creative problem solving. Actually helping in the design process for products that, preferable, are dedicated to helping people be creative. I like to deal with creativity at a meta-level and think about how it works and how to facilitate it.

I’ve been starting to work on the neuroscience of creativity by integrating biofeedback into the creative process using NeuroSky’s MindSet. In my most recent PhD project, I am recording brainwaves to analyze how creativity affects the mind, and also to integrate those neural impulses into the creative process.

I’ve long dreamed of a creative medium that directly interfaces with the brain and allows one to dream up creations and then manipulate them with the hands. Very similar to an early video that envisions the future of augmented reality in World Builder:

Augmented reality is now taking hold and smartphones are driving its use and utility up. The interface for communicating intent to the machine is an interesting one. At this point in time, brain computer interfaces are rather crude, and the software I’ve developed works on a kind of continuum with a loose and rather choppy control scheme that does not allow for fine grained detection. This could be in part because I am not used to interacting with the technology, but I fear it is an inherent limitation of the device. However, the devices will continue to increase in their precision, as technology always does, and I will continue to design for what works now, and try to dream the future for tomorrow.

I think being able to dream up ideal technology and devices is a unique artistic ability that my experience has given me. Compared to the engineers I am sometimes surrounded with, I have an ability to just dream up what could be and shoot towards that, rather than having the software dictate how the interaction should be structured. I would rather have a half implemented (but adequately functioning) technology that has identifiable extensions in the future rather than a technologically deterministic creation that is outdated as soon as it comes out.

Yet, a lot of times, engineers are trained to know their materials well and design within their contsraints. Artists are trained to break boundaries and constantly explore and challenge themselves. Well at least some are. And I think these types of innovations are what my creative consulting firm would offer.

I would like to specialize in technology that somehow makes an individual more creative and increases quality of life through creativity. I would pursue this direction because I personally feel that the purpose of human existence is to create. To learn and grow is to know ever more refined and intricate methods of creation and knowledge of how to create one’s life in various capacities. Knowing the extent to which life is a creation is a constant mystery that introduces new unknowns at each turn.

]]>https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/creative-entrepreneurship/feed/0nicholasdavisTime Arthttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/time-art/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/time-art/#respondThu, 10 Feb 2011 06:06:44 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=59Continue reading →]]>A theme running through my artworks and art musings in the past few years (and one touched on in my last post on the stock market) is the concept of art through time. I like to think about the creative process through time.

There are many methods for capturing this process. One is to record the process and play it back. I have briefly experimented with this medium with a quick sketch that I posted on youtube. It was only a half-hour doodle with oil pastels, but I did quite like the result:

Thinking about art in this way brings up the question about whether it is the product or the process that is the artwork. As consumers of art, we typically don’t have access to the process, so our choice is made for us. Given the chance, would we prefer watching the process versus the product, or at least having the process as a reference? Some argue that this reduces the mystery and magnificence of a piece of art, but I think that understanding how something was made will prompt one to be more creative because it is more accessible. The steps are transparent. I know that I surely used to like the show How it’s made when I was young, maybe that’s why I’m obsessed.

Others have explored this video taping method a little more in depth. For example, artists Supakitch and Koraline make a film that follows the typical film language patterns.

This video breaks the process down into the most crucial parts and develops a narrative through camera work, music, and visual progression of the art piece. This is interesting from the viewers perspective because one is curious how the painting is going to develop and also intrigued and pacified by the nice camera work and music.

Digital drawing programs are beginning to offer playback modes. Perhaps more interesting are online communities forming that allow collaboration and feature playback. Examples of these sites are 2Draw.Net and RateMyDrawing.Com. These sites have developed a whole community in which a master and apprentice relationship develops between collaborating artists. The observer has access to the temporal progression of visual and conceptual data through the drawing and corresponding forum. This is probably a good topic to explore in a post of its own. I have done some preliminary studies and interviews with these individuals inquiring about their collaborative practices.

Finally, artists are able to use screen capture software to record their digital strokes and play them back. However, out of all of these different time art techniques, none have been designed for that specific purpose. No one is yet to realize the significance of allowing access to the creative process as both an art piece and a media for creating art in itself. There is an interesting recursion that will crop up once creative process visualizations are manipulated as an artistic medium in itself.

I have been thinking about and designing (mostly conceptually) programs that help the user to visualize their creative process. By offering visualizations and opportunities to manipulate and play with the a representation of the creative process, I really think people could learn a lot, not to mention have a lot of fun!

In this piece, the user is able to see a picture of a painting at different stages in the creative process. I am happy to say that the basic functionality is in place. Now comes the time to think about additional functions and aesthetic considerations.

Typically, I am avid idea generator. At the conceptual level I’m a system designing machine, and I come up with an invention a day, complete with sketches, defined interaction, context of use, and the whole nine yards. Yet implementation seems a bit far because I am more on the artistic side. I know the programming, but it requires discipline and a significant amount of time to really bring art and programming together. I think interactive art is the perfect breeding ground to develop this skill, and look forward to really pushing myself in this direction.

If you are interested in interactive art. You should check out processing, which is the language that program was built in. The Creativity and Cognition Studios in Australia has also done some very interesting studies on interactive artworks which you may find interesting. They explore how the audience experience changes through time and have developed methodologies to describe different phases of interacting with artworks.

As far as the Time Art that I showed above, I have several different ideas about how to proceed. I am actually documenting my progress on this blog as another means of recording the process, so that I may have yet another trace explaining the process. My aim is ultimately to tie together these different ways of thinking about and acting on creative ideas into common media in which their interconnection can be drawn.

In the Time Art piece, I am thinking about having a tree like structure develop from each of the smaller circles. I am also going to have each of the smaller circles have a thumbnail of the picture, but that requires 22 iterations of Photoshop, so that is another step in itself. Stay tuned for more developments! Let me know if you have any suggestions on where you would like to see this go. This blog could be another form of asynchronous interactive artwork. What you say will influence how the design develops.

For tonight, I am happy to have the function nailed down and in a presentable state. Tomorrow, I will be attending Marc Downie’s workshop on a new programming language called Field. The philosophy of that language is to provide a completely flexible programming environment for creating digital art. It is an interesting combination of visual and text based programming. I look forward to the activity tomorrow. For more information on Marc or Field, check out his OpenEnded Group.

]]>https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/time-art/feed/0nicholasdavisHow do stocks fit into a creative life?https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/how-do-stocks-fit-into-a-creative-life/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/how-do-stocks-fit-into-a-creative-life/#respondThu, 10 Feb 2011 05:25:14 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=52Continue reading →]]>I must admit, I am an individual of diversified passions. I’m an artist, and this is, perhaps, the side I identify with most, and like to identify with most. However, I am also extremely interested in technology, design, urban planning, and the stock market.

What may be the common thread in these seemingly diverse activities, you may ask? Dynamism. At heart, I think I am a futurist. Content in constant flux. Finding awe in the natural flow and rhythm of production, creation, destruction. For this reason, I wonder at natural phenomena such as the beating drone of a water fall. Trying my eyes to focus on one point and conceptualizing what it means to have all that water in constant motion. And further expanding this thinking to conceive the river as both a flowing entity, teaming with the dichotomy of molecular holism. The river existing as an extension in time and space linking distant lands-a flowing thread made of singular bits convinced to travel together.

Anyway, this was meant to be a transition into a discussion about the stock market. Although I predict that most of my posts relating to the stock market may have this mixed feel to them. We’ll see how it happens. This is the first post that will broaden the scope of this blog to include more diversified interests.

My investment strategy thus far has centered around alternative energy stocks. I feel that this is the most morally and ethically responsible market to invest in and have thus focused my energies on investigating this investment sector. There are a surprising amount of subcategories when one begins to investigate the alternative energy sector: solar, wind, energy efficiency, energy storage, smart grid, geothermal, and others.

My strategy is to read up from several other sources to try to get a pulse for what kinds of trends are happening. In general, it seems there are may players in the solar game and the end winners are up for grabs. Contrary to popular belief, electric vehicles are not very practical at this point in time because of the amount of the extremely scarce resources Lithium used in their batteries. Geothermal seems like a solid bet with companies such as Ram Power (RPG), and the Nevada Group (NGP) among the few key players in this realm (both of which I have a bit).

More on this later, but for now I feel like moving back the creative side and discussing an interactive artwork I am developing.

]]>https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/how-do-stocks-fit-into-a-creative-life/feed/0nicholasdavisThe Two Step Dance of Creation: Act, Thinkhttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/two-step-dance-of-creation/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/two-step-dance-of-creation/#respondWed, 16 Jun 2010 16:30:33 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=39Continue reading →]]>Continue from last post…..The desire for creative liberty seems to be like a pressure valve that needs to be released every so often, at indeterminate intervals. Depending on what kind of problem, one’s mood, how efficiently one is working, the pressure rises, and once it reaches a threshold, one will run into a problem or creative roadblock in the project.

At this point, it is necessary to do some action to relieve this creative urge. This can be in a number of ways. The difference between the two poles of the model I have just presented in the last article, supporting creativity, is that stage one, creative liberation, could be summarized as action, and stage two, creative delibaration, could be summarized as thinking. However, this is a slightly different kind of thinking in the head. This type of thinking follows more closely with the distributed cognition definition of thinking. Humans use our environments in order to work out problems and manipulate material and physical entities (words, paint, objects, etc.) to help conceptualize a problem.

I will give a concrete example. Say I am painting, and I have a particular line that I am developing, and this line has a certain radius to it. This radius needs to be extended because that is what the perceptual logic of the piece dictates. In order to deliberate over this problem, I can look at it and imagine what it looks like, taking the perceptual logic and running with it, so to speak. Simulating future circumstance based upon the foundation I currently have, building up. This is all constructive, vertical, rule based thinking, all relating to the perceptual logic and to the thinking part of the process. However, within this process lies action (part of the first stage). The action is me taking my brush and moving it along the curve to see how it would feel to make this kind of curve. This is a mini two step cycle in itself actually, because I perform the curve and I evaluate if it resonates with the perceptual logic that has developed within me. But these are mini performance and mini evaluations that would cause a small spike and dip on the larger dampened oscillator model.

This stage of the process is deliberation. It is setting up and formulating a plan by using different methods to think about the problem. This step can only go so far until it requires more input, it needs a real change to continue, almost as if the rational mind is a hungry machine fed by trying, in some way, to act upon the world, after all, it is called feedback.

(I have a hunch here that experts are able to go longer before requiring additional feedback, letting them solve problems with minimal manipulations of the environment because they can call upon previous instances that have been abstracted to categorical problems and prototypical steps required to solve these problems, heuristics. This is good if it works, but troublesome if it doesn’t, because oftentimes, the experts have a hard time changing their mentality.)

The main gist of each step is

Exteriorization of mental content, acting

Generation of mental content, thinking.

However, as the enactive paradigm and the distributed cognition theory in Cognitive Science has taught us, these factors are tightly bound, which is why we see interesting overlaps in each of the mini cycles for the poles.

Either way, in this article I wish to highlight the fact that it is necessary to ease the pressure valve built up during vertical thinking, for once the pressure builds this style of creativity loses its productive value…more action is required. This is where implementation is required, actualizing the ideations, and why I referred to step one as exteriorizing mental content in the model above. The thoughts must take a certain form, and choice have to be made in order to decide what form they should take, but the actual implementation the finest grain details of doing the action, the millimeter by millimeter guidance of the hand and precise choice of every word is not a fully conscious act. The mind knows the end result it wants to achieve, but only until it actually views its creation does it truly find out how it has managed to exteriorize this idea, meaning that the nitty gritty was largely indeterminate until the final exteriorization. Now the deliberating mind can view this creation and evaluate how it fits, how it changes the scene, and where to go next. There is a whole host of new problems to solve and avenues to explore, although they may be minute compared to the overall logic of the piece.

This dichotomy is the same as that of form vs. function. Form is exteriorizing and function is the thinking part, i.e. extending the logic and building upon foundations. On one side the artist is the actor, but he is enabling the piece to exist as a coherent whole, with a personality, and acting upon the viewing in some way (convincing their eyes to flow in a certain manner, striking some chord within them, etc.). So step one consists of the author acting in order that he may watch those actions in step two to see if they were the desired actions or not. Thus painting is a two step dance with the canvas, as is problem solving and the creative process overall, a two step dance with any medium. There is the function, the story of what needs to be told, and the form, the actual plot the author develops in order to tell that story. And as a matter of fact every sentence tells a small story, that of the intention of the author. The story are the semantics of the sentence and the plot is the syntax used to convey that meaning. The author is cognizant of the semantics and based upon the mind supplies the appropriate words to congeal the thought.

]]>https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/two-step-dance-of-creation/feed/0nicholasdavisSupporting Creativity from within the Concepthttps://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/supporting-creativity/
https://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/supporting-creativity/#respondWed, 16 Jun 2010 06:21:14 +0000http://nicholasdavis.wordpress.com/?p=31Continue reading →]]>The four step theory of creativity widely cited in the creativity theory literature is a good place to begin thinking about computational approaches that can augment and supplement the process.

Preparation

Incubation

Illumination

Implementation

This kind of thinking usually happens in the context of problem solving. It is usually not an open ended creative context, such as the scenario of abstract art I have discussed before. However, on this side note, the abstract art previously discussed enters into this phase after a perceptual logic has been constructed.

Preparation consists of formulating the problem and conducting background work on this topic. One posible hindrance here may be specialization and its resulting fixation. Usually enhancing a thinkers ability to efficiently solve problems, a specialist develops detailed schemes and heuristics for problems types, resulting in a quick identification and problem strategy. Only a few elements are required for the mind to recognize a familiar problem category and initiate a frame for dealing with this kind of problem. A frame ( manifested in many domains: Linguistics and Semantics: Fillmore 1979; Artificial Intelligence: Newell & Simon; McArthy) a cognitive mechanism for efficiently interpreting and navigating through a scene based upon previous encounters. A frame activates subsets within each type of memory, procedural (how to navigate ones body), semantic (interpreting the scene, including relevant symbolic information) , and episodic (abstracted representation of the situation).

Experts have finely developed frames. For example, this is a blog, it is a new context for me to write on. I am used to writing academic papers and worried about citing individuals, etc. However, I am trying to get across and idea, which is the problem I am currently facing. My expertise in the area is forcing me to explain concepts which are necessary, but already known within my mind. The issue I am dealing with in this new medium is that I am writing for two audiences at once: myself, and you. I am writing for myself in the sense that this blog is a sketchbook of ideas and as I put them on paper it becomes an important resource for myself. A searchable database of musings. At the same time, I have to consider the fact that it might be read and that I want people to read it. Thus, I want a certain level of academic rigor and integrity. So there is an issue with the granularity with which I am approaching the problem. This scenario is an open ended creative problem. It does not closely follow with the four step model above but rather more closely follows the two step model mentioned before, in the process article. By writing this paragraph, I have aided myself in moving out of the technical jargon of my field and to stop worrying about the dates and citations and purely scholarly issues to actually get some solid theoretical scholarly work done. In order to be more scholarly, I have to become less scholarly. Interesting.

This is one of my points on creativity. Namely that of scope. And the appropriateness of when to apply various scopes. My issue in the context that I was facing earlier was that I was doing fine grained detail work when I should have been formulating my thoughts and putting them all out there in full. Next, go through the work and make sure it is well referenced and logically coherent and articulate. To remedy this solution, I propose a sort of goal tracker to organize intention at various levels in the creative process. More on that later.

The four stages mentioned earlier do not happen in a straightforward manner, and it could be that writing them in that order may only confuse the matter. However, we will explore this grouping, if only for a little while, because cutting up a concept in a structural manner has its merit. I will explain why cutting up a structure has its merit. It has to do with the scope. To dissect a concept is to think deeply about it–it is to follow a foundation of logic and build what we percieve to be this concept up from that logical foundation. In the case of creativity that we are currently dealing with, we could conceive this as four pillars, and we are constructing the creative process as incrementally adding to these four pillar. We can amass different data and theories relating to each pillar and keep stacking until our constructed concept becomes larger, and this is good, it is a lens with which to see that which we seek. This is what I refer to as vertical thinking. Applying one logical schema to a domain, usually the one that is closely associated to the frame and building the concept up by looking upon each of the details of the theory and flushing them out. It is effectively zooming on on certain aspects of the theory. Instead of viewing the creative process as one mysterious thing, we view it as four somewhat more manageable cognitive steps that we have information on. Then, we proceed to gather information we have on each process and create a pile.

Each step of creativity is like one of these pillars. The more we research it, the more detailed and elaborate it becomes. As the details progress, the pillars become more formidable and can be said to ‘hold weight’, and the concept can now be considered a structure. Researches contributing to it become specialists, thus science progresses in a logical way from a steady foundations of ways to view a concept.

Researches that familiarize themselves with this structure and contribute to it become specialists. Thus science progresses in a logical way from a steady foundations of ways to view a concept.However, there comes a time when a problem arises, which cannot be easily answered. And no amount of building can ever answer this question. In fact, the entire problem space needs to be redefined and the actual representation used for the concept needs to be restructured.

In this way, a diagram, a simple tools used to represent and convey a concept, can be both a blessing and a curse. In the same way a word, or a common linguistic convention for discussing a concept (including the metaphors and analogies commonly used), can also exist as a blessing and a curse. Both symbolic devices help to formulate the thought into a tangible entity and make it easy to transfer the thought from one mind to another, but both also serve to solidify it and make it more difficult to conceive it in a new way.

To bring this back to our initial discussion, which is actually very real and concrete (sometimes I am too abstract, I have this problem with scope, you see….), is that of the creative process being conceived as four steps. If we change our initial point of departure (and subsequently our logical foundations), and think of the creative process in terms of my two step model (and also coincidentally similar to the two stage model of Poincaré), then we find that the concept of creativity looks rather different than it did in the four step model. Changing the logical foundation of a concept is just like altering the foundation of a building, it changes what can be built upon it; it restructures the problem space.

Let us now test this theory by presenting the two step model of creativity and examine how discussing creativity in this manner, regardless of whether or not it is exactly accurate, looks qualitatively different than the four pillar concept, and may lead to new discoveries and the tools with which to solve problems (such as building computational tools to aid creativity)

Unstructured creative freedom; liberation,

Analysis and deduction of logic; deliberation.

As I stated in an earlier post, the process oscillates between these two poles, and as the perceptual logic (of the painting) is formulated, less creative freedom exists.

Let us consider this model in a different domain, that of design. In the initial phases of design, it is good to have many different approaches and the medium for communicating these approaches is typically a sketch. Sketches are just that, sketchy, they have maximum creative freedom with little attention paid to the detail; they are for communicating an idea. Each creative expression requires a critical evaluation with feedback, both from other people and from one’s self. The act of bringing the idea out into the world in a concrete form changes the idea. As I said earlier, the representation with which one chooses to present an idea solidifies that idea. Each time a sketch is made the author chooses to highlight a certain angle of the idea, for the individuals ideation as a whole can not be communicated, but one can give a hint to another individual using the sketch + linguistic communication. This is why sketches are so effective, because oftentimes they are accompanied by speech and an understanding of what the situation is. The interlocutor is expecting an idea about the problem so they are especially receptive, which eases the communication and allows the sketch to be general. Thus, the creative liberty is high, until the act is complete, and then an evaluative period ensues.

The idea has now taken a concrete form. In our fictitious design meeting, one member has decided to attempt to communicate their vision of a product and she has chosen a concrete (albeit sketchy) manifestation of the idea. It can be an inkling or a hunch or whatever, but the point is is that it is out there in the world now, however unsure one is about the idea. It is there to be evaluated.

From there, the logic of the idea is deduced. In terms of design, the internal logic of the proposal is compared to the overall logic of the goal and evaluated relative to this parameter. In painting there may not be this overall goal, at least not in the beginning (for as the painting progresses there are sub goals and each region of the painting may exhibit a certain internal perceptual logic that plays a role in the larger perceptual logic of the whole piece). This period of viewing and deliberating provides some clues on where to go next. If the design team decides that this is a valuable insight, they keep the foundation and build upon it (they have laid the groundwork for the concept/idea they will develop). Each new contribution will be on top of that foundation. Each new problem will present a subgoal that requires a certain amount of creative liberty to conjure up a small solution, but the overall project displays an internal logic and has a definite direction. As the process progresses the magnitude of changes dampen and the fine grained details present many smaller problems until eventually the end of the project is reached and the finishing touches are put on the project.

The overall gist of this idea is that creativity happens in conjunction with and is inexorably bound up to evaluation and deduction. And this relationship can be modeled, roughly, according a dampened oscillation with each vertical point corresponding to creative insight and evaluative response.

Would you now agree that we have build up the idea of creativity in a different manner? Or at the very least, highlighted, emphasized, and developed one aspect that was somewhat malnourished in the previous model? As a result of this revaluation of creativity, the end result has very different. In fact, comparing the diagrammatic representations of each can clearly show this difference.

One of my points, or at least something I feel is important to mention, and this gets back to building computational tools to aid creativity (and also gets back to dealing with scope), is that in order for a science to progress, there needs to be periods of building up ideas and developing them, as well as creative liberty to restructure old problems in new ways in order to keep things fresh and inspire active discovery, alleviate fixation, and provide the flexible thinking that can solve real problems in any field.